Age, Cohorts and the Generation of Generations
TL;DR: Zimmerman, Don H. as discussed by the authors, 1969 "Some issues in labeling theory." Read at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Seattle, Washington. 1970 "Record-keeping and the intake process in a public welfare organization." Pp. 319354.
Abstract: Zimmerman, Don H. 1969 "Some issues in labeling theory." Read at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Seattle, Washington. 1970 "Record-keeping and the intake process in a public welfare organization." Pp. 319354 in Stanton Wheeler (ed.), On Record: Files and Dossiers in American Life. New York: Russell Sage. Zimmerman, Don H. and Melvin Pollner Forth"The everyday world as a phenomenon." coming To appear in Harold Pepinsky (ed.), People and Information (in press).
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize these previously fragmented literatures around a more general "upper echelons perspective" and claim that organizational outcomes (strategic choices and performance levels) are partially predicted by managerial background characteristics.
Abstract: Theorists in various fields have discussed characteristics of top managers. This paper attempts to synthesize these previously fragmented literatures around a more general “upper echelons perspective.” The theory states that organizational outcomes—strategic choices and performance levels—are partially predicted by managerial background characteristics. Propositions and methodological suggestions are included.
11,022 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the relationship between the demography of top management teams and corporate strategic change, measured as absolute change in diversification level, within a sample of Fortune 500 companies, and found that top management team demography was correlated with strategic change.
Abstract: This study examined the relationship between the demography of top management teams and corporate strategic change, measured as absolute change in diversification level, within a sample of Fortune ...
2,590 citations
TL;DR: For the 2 decades prior to 1960, published research in social psychology was based on a wide variety of subjects and research sites and content analyses show that since then such research has overwhelmingly been based on college students tested in academic laboratories on academic-like tasks as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: For the 2 decades prior to 1960, published research in social psychology was based on a wide variety of subjects and research sites. Content analyses show that since then such research has overwhelmingly been based on college students tested in academic laboratories on academiclike tasks. How might this heavy dependence on one narrow data base have biased the main substantive conclusions of sociopsychological research in this era? Research on the full life span suggests that, compared with older adults, college students are likely to have less-crystallized attitudes, less-formulated senses of self, stronger cognitive skills, stronger tendencies to comply with authority, and more unstable peer group relationships. The laboratory setting is likely to exaggerate all these differences. These peculiarities of social psychology's predominant data base may have contributed to central elements of its portrait of human nature. According to this view people (a) are quite compliant and their behavior is easily socially influenced, (b) readily change their attitudes and (c) behave inconsistently with them, and (d) do not rest their self-perceptions on introspection. The narrow data base may also contribute to this portrait of human nature's (e) strong emphasis on cognitive processes and to its lack of emphasis on (f) personality dispositions, (g) material self-interest, (h) emotionally based irrationalities, (i) group norms, and (j) stage-specific phenomena. The analysis implies the need both for more careful examination of sociopsychological propositions for systematic biases introduced by dependence on this narrow data base and for increased reliance on adults tested in their natural habitats with materials drawn from ordinary life.
1,932 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors unpack the heterogeneity of interests and preferences across and within types of shareholders and senior managers over time in an analysis of the adoption of a shareholder value orientation among contemporary German firms.
Abstract: This study offers a sociopolitical perspective on the international spread of corporate governance models. We unpack the heterogeneity of interests and preferences across and within types of shareholders and senior managers over time in an analysis of the adoption of a shareholder value orientation among contemporary German firms. Using extensive data on more than 100 of the largest publicly traded German companies from 1990 to 2000, we find that the influence of major shareholder groups (e.g., banks, industrial corporations, governments, and families) and senior manager types (differing educational backgrounds and ages) can be clearly observed only after redefining these key actors according to common interests and preferences. We also find evidence that German firms engage in decoupling by espousing but not implementing a shareholder value orientation but show that the presence of more powerful and more committed key actors reduces the likelihood of decoupling. We discuss the implications of our finding...
802 citations
Cites background from "Age, Cohorts and the Generation of ..."
...A number of studies have found that the greater an executive's age, the greater is his or her rigidity and resistance to change (Carlson and Karlsson, 1970; Vroom and Pahl, 1971; Wiersema and Bantel, 1992)....
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TL;DR: This paper examined three hypotheses about the relation between age and the stability of sociopolitical attitudes, including the impressionable-year hypothesis, which states that the youngest adults have the least stable attitudes; the aging-stability hypothesis, that attitude stability increases with age; and the hypothesis that symbolic attitudes are more likely to show distinctive life cycle patterns of attitude stability than less symbolic ones.
Abstract: This article examines three hypotheses about the relation between age and the stability of sociopolitical attitudes. The hypotheses are (1) the impressionable-year hypothesis, which states that the youngest adults have the least stable attitudes; (2) the aging-stability hypothesis, that attitude stability increases with age; and (3) the hypothesis that symbolic attitudes are more likely to show distinctive life-cycle patterns of attitude stability than less symbolic ones. The hypotheses are tested using nationally representative panel data from the National Election Study (NES). When results are aggregated over 50 different measures of attitudes, they reveal that in general the youngest adults have the lowest levels of attitude stability, although the difference is not significant. Beyond this, the aggregated data show very few systematic age-related differences, and very few life-span differences in attitude stability are related to the nature of the attitude object; that is, symbolic attitudes do not se...
550 citations
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TL;DR: Since cohorts are used to achieve structural transformation and since they manifest its consequences in characteristic ways, it is proposed that research be designed to capitalize on the congruence of social change and cohort identification.
Abstract: Society persists despite the mortality of its individual members, through processes of demographic metabolism and particularly the annual infusion of birth cohorts. These may pose a threat to stability but they also provide the opportunity for societal transformation. Each birth cohort acquires coherence and continuity from the distinctive development of its constituents and from its own persistent macroanalytic features. Successive cohorts are differentiated by the changing content of formal education, by peer-group socialization, and by idiosyncratic historical experience. Young adults are prominent in war, revolution, immigration, urbanization and technological change. Since cohorts are used to achieve structural transformation and since they manifest its consequences in characteristic ways, it is proposed that research be designed to capitalize on the congruence of social change and cohort identification.
2,192 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the consequences of delayed response, or inertia, on the level of macro-sociological variables are dealt with, while the behaviour subjected to analysis can be studied also on the individual variability, and the question can be raised why some individuals react one way, and others in another way, or not at all.
Abstract: Nature and Put-pose of the Study. This paper will deal with the consequences of delayed response, or inertia, on the level of macro-sociological variables. In general the behaviour subjected to analysis can be studied also on the level of individual variability, and the question can be raised why some individuals (or other small units) react one way, and others in another way, or not at all. This will be referred to as micro-analysis, while marcro-analysis, as here understood, treats the average behaviour characteristic of the society, varying from one society to another, or in time. In the case of a response which is &dquo;quantal&dquo; (all-or-none) on the individual level the macrovariable is a proportion and it is this situation many of the subsequent examples relate to.. ~ ~ ~ _
4 citations